CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board voted 6-3 Tuesday to launch layoffs of approximately 600 teachers and cut pay for all 224 assistant principals in 2010-11, as the district braces for a second bleak budget year.
The board voted 6-3 against a motion to cut everyone’s pay up to 10 percent to avert layoffs. But members said they’ll keep looking for alternatives to layoffs, possibly including pay cuts. Superintendent Peter Gorman said he can still scale back on job cuts if the budget picture improves, but if he doesn’t start now “we lose the ability to have it as a tool.”
Kaye McGarry, Richard McElrath and Joyce Waddell voted against the layoffs and for the substitute motion on pay cuts.
Gorman said teachers with low ratings on job evaluations will be at the top of the layoff list. “Performance is first,” he said.
Gorman told the board he plans to “demote” all assistant principals from 11-month to 10-month employees, cutting their pay proportionally. He is also eliminating 19 school psychologist jobs.
The majority of members said they hate approving layoffs but believe it’s necessary, as state and county dollars appear to be drying up for the coming year.
“This is the most unpleasant thing that we have to do,” said Joe White, a retired educator. “I think Pete Gorman’s anxiety level is higher than I’ve ever seen it.”
“I do believe it’s fair and I do believe it’s rational,” Tim Morgan said.
McGarry asked that CMS instead consider an across-the-board pay cut of up to 10 percent for the district’s almost 19,000 employees.
“Instead of eliminating 600 teachers, it would share the pain across the district,” she said.
McGarry said last year’s layoffs were “unprofessional, sloppy and unfair,” and she didn’t want to repeat that scene.
“We lost a lot of good people,” she said. “I’m not willing to lose good people again.”
“If they are unemployed they have nothing,” said Waddell, a retired teacher. “If they take a cut they have something.”
CMS is looking at grim budget projections for 2010-11, with the possibility of needing to cut up to $80 million from this year’s spending.
The number of teachers losing their jobs could change, based on forecasts for county and state cuts and voluntary departures. Individual notices must go out by May 15.
The board vote on teacher layoffs is a required first step. Gorman says the process must start now to allow for notice and appeals. He also plans to cut other jobs, including central office and support staff, bus drivers and maintenance workers, but those don’t require a board vote.
Gorman has been pushing principals to make sure they have documented any weak performance, and told them schools where students aren’t making adequate gains need to have some faculty on “action plans,” or formal notice that they need to improve.
“The majority of our teachers do a fine job,” Gorman told PTA members Monday night. “I don’t want ... a culture of fear out there. I’m saying if there’s a teacher who’s not effective, put them on a plan to improve.”
Gorman will present his formal budget plan to the school board April 13; the board will use that to make its pitch for shrinking county dollars. County commissioners will vote on their budget, including spending for CMS, in June.
